Combustion-regulating means



J. M. HOPWOOD.

OMBUSTION HEGULATING MEANS. APPLICATION FILED OCT. 4, 1919.

INVENTOR UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN M. HOPWOOD, OF DQRMONT, PENNSYLVANIA.

COMBUSTION-REGULATING MEANS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 20, 1921.

Application filed October 4, 1919. Serial K 5328563.

To all whom it may) concern:

Be it known that. I, JOHN M.- Horwoon,

residing at'Dormont, in the county of Allegheny and State ofPennsylvania, a citizen of the United States, have invented ordiscovered certain new and useful Improvements in Combustion-RegulatingMeans,:of

which improvements the following is aspecification. I

It is the purpose inemploying automatic combustion regulating means toinsure an increase inthe rate of combustion in case the supply of steamis insuflicient and to decrease the rate of combustion when the rate ofsupply is greater than required, or in other Words, to regulatecombustion so that the rate of eneration shall always be proportional tot e demand, 21. 0., shall rise and fall with the demand.

It is the present practice to connect the.

motors of the combustion accessories, such as stoking mechanism,blowers, etc., directly to the boiler or to a header connected to all,the units of a plant so that the pressure of the steam supplied tothese accessorieswill var with changes of pressure in the boiler eader,except 1n cases where 1t is de-'.

or sired to operate the blower at 'a constant rate, in which case'theflow of steam to the blower motor is controlled by a governor, andthesupply of air-to the furnace or furnaces is regulated by a valve ordamper. A governor, however, cannot be employed for regulating the fiow'of steam to the stoker en ines, as the operation of the lat ter shoulvary in accordance with the load in the boiler. In cases where the fanspeeds are regulated to suit load requirements, it is the practice tocontrol the flow of steam to the fan engine by a valve mechanism,

which tends to close the valve when the.

steam pressure rises and to open the valve when the pressure falls.

Practice has shown that the degree of regulation attained by theemployment of such valve mechanism for regulating the operations ofstokers, e'tc., is very unsatisfactory, as no' provision is made forcompensating for the variation of the pressures of the steam; only thequantity of steam flowing to the stoker .and fan engines is varied.Hence although the quantity of steampassed by such valve mechanism willvary as the pressure in the boiler rises or falls, the pressure of thesteam so admitted will rise or fall, and only a partial regulation iseffected, and experience has shown .that as a matter' 'of fact theoperations of the stokers and fans do not respond with substantialexactness to changes of load on the boiler, when their engines .aredirectly connected to the boiler or header connected to a plurality ofboilers.

The invention described herein has for its object the provision ofsuitable means whereby the pressure of the steam supplied to the motorsof the accessories will not vary with the pressure of the steam suppliedby the boiler or boilers, or in other words, it is the object oftheinvention to supply, the motors of the accessories with steam at anunvarying predetermined pressure, so that the operation of the stokerand' boiler will respond with substantial exactness to changes of loadin the boiler or boilers. The invention-is hereinafter more fullydescribed and claimed.

In the accompanying drawing vforming a part of this specification isshown diagrammatically a plurality of boiler units with accessories suchas fuel feeding means, and means for supplying air for combustlon 1ncombinatlon with means for supplylng sure to the motors of suchaccessories. 1

In the practice of the invention, the boiler is provided with its usualoutlet extending to point of use, or to the header 1 forming the outletfor a plurality of boilers, and leadin to the engine or other point ofuse. In or er to provide-for supplying steam to the accessories at auniform pressure, an

steam at a predeterminedand uniform presduit 6, and also to thecylinders of the stoking mechanism, diagrammatically indicated at 7.

provement described herein can be'used in connection with any knownsystem for regulating the feed of fuel and air for combustion whethersuch system operates to adjust combustion conditions by and in ac- Itwill be readily understood that the imcordance With ,changes in pressureof the steam, as shown and described in Letters Patent No. 817438, datedApril 10th, 1906 or in accordance-with the rate of flow and pressure ofsteam from the generator to the point or points of use as set forth inLetters Patent No. 1,338,922 granted May 4: 1920, to John M. Hopwood, itbeing the purpose of this invention to insure that any changes inpressure or rate of flowof the steam shall be followed by changes in thoperation of the accessories almost exactly proportional.

to such changes, and all irregularly actin influences eliminated.

I claim herein as my invention: 1. The combination of a steam generator,

" means for controlling the rate of combustion of fuel in the furnaceofsaid generator,

motors for operating said means, connec-- tions from the generator tothe motors of 2. The combination of a battery of steam generators, aheader connected to-such battery, means for malntaming a constantpressure ofsteam in said header, means for controlling the rate ofcombustion of fuel in the furnaces of said battery, motors for operatingsaid controlling means and connec- I tions from said header to themotors of the.

. combustion controlling means.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand.

= JOHN M. HoPWooD.

